In Philippines, One Last Symbol Lies in State

By SETH MYDANS, Special to the New York Times

Published: May 25, 1988

MANILA, May 24—
Small stickers on the wall read ''Let him come home,'' but in the San Jose chapel where his mother's body lies in an open coffin, hopes are fading that former President Ferdinand E. Marcos will be allowed to return for the funeral.

The body of Josefa Edralin Marcos remains unburied three weeks after Mrs. Marcos's death, at the age of 95. The body has become a final symbol of the waning Marcos loyalist movement.

Mr. Marcos ''has assured us that he will be home, whether by hook or by crook,'' said Jimmy Aguilar, one of the men who sleeps at the chapel on a cardboard mat. ''But if he does not return, it is the assessment of the majority that the loyalist movement will collapse.''

Mr. Marcos's sister-in-law, Loyd V. Marcos, said that there were still no firm plans for a funeral and that the family was ''waiting for the go signal from Hawaii,'' where the former President lives in exile.

When Mrs. Marcos died on May 4, President Corazon C. Aquino announced that because of ''considerations of national welfare,'' the Government would not allow the former President to return. But in the Philippines, where statements are rarely final, the Marcos loyalists have staged rallies to keep alive the hope that Mr. Marcos means what he says about returning.

The funeral has been delayed because the ailing former President has issued a series of vague statements from Hawaii. In exile, Mr. Marcos continues to visit doctors and to fend off lawsuits from the Philippine Government, which is seeking to recover billions of dollars that the former President is accused of having stolen.

The loyalists avoid questions about the propriety of delaying a burial for so long. Dressed in white brocade, the body of Mrs. Marcos lies surrounded by faded flowers and memorial ribbons, one of which reads, ''From Andy and Meldy,'' the nicknames of Mr. Marcos and his wife, Imelda.

In a kitchen annex, where meals are prepared for relatives, the topic today was how long a body could be preserved in Manila's heat and humidity.

''Thirty days,'' said Benjamin Villanueva, a Marcos aide who said one of his duties over the years was to play mah-jongg with Mr. Marcos's mother.

''It can last for up to three months, the mummy,'' said Frank Malabed, an undertaker who is watching the body.

''Have you noticed our dried fish in the marketplace?'' said Arcadio Sison, a loyalist leader. ''How long do you think they last?''

Mrs. Marcos was ill when the former President fled the country in February 1986. She died believing that her son was still the President.